Baladi: Palestine—A Celebration of Food from Land and Sea

Caterer Kalla follows up Palestine on a Plate with this celebratory collection of soulful recipes from the baladi, or homeland, her family fled in 1948. A chapter on vegetable and grain dishes offers up purslane salad with pomegranate seeds; while a chapter on meats suggests a string of tempting lamb recipes including one for cored carrots stuffed with rice and ground lamb, and another that calls for rolling chard leaves around ground meat and then using them to form a patty atop lamb cutlets. A chapter on bread and savory pastries begins with a story of Kalla’s grandmother bringing dough to the town baker to bake, as caring for her 11 children made baking in her home kitchen impossible. Recipes are provided for several flatbreads, including one layered with zaatar, sumac, and onion. Desserts include caraway pudding (traditionally served to nursing mothers) and a sesame cake blackened with nigella seeds. The only off-key note is represented by the “fusion” offerings; there is so much here in Palestinian cooking that has previously gone unexplored (including milk infused with turmeric and cardamom) that it’s jarring to come upon fish-out-of-water items like ceviche and éclairs. Nevertheless, Kalla’s excellent recipes wonderfully evoke culinary Palestine. (Nov.)